The Essay
by aaquater
Summary: Percy is writing an essay about a family member during English class. That should be easy, right? Well, when your family on your dad's side consists of super powerful, immortal beings, maybe not so much.
1. The Essay

_Hello! This is just an idea that suddenly came to my mind, so I decided to make a one-shot about it. For those who don't know when this is happening, it's set two months after the Battle of Manhattan._

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_October 8th, 2009 Perseus Jackson, 10th Grade_

_My Grandfather_

_(Essay)_

_**Goal:**__ Describe your most disliked family member and the reason why you don't like him / her._

My grandfather on my father's side is a very interesting person, to say the least. For one, he's my grandfather, but also my girlfriend's great-grandfather and the father of the activities director of the summer camp I go to; and, my girlfriend is older than me by six months, and even though we're related, me dating her isn't considered incest. But, if I started to describe the many ways in which my family's messed up, I wouldn't get to the point until tomorrow. (And if I started to blab about my amazing girlfriend, I'd be here until Christmas 2019.)

My grandfather is fairly tall and he has short, blonde hair that hasn't started turning gray yet and weird, golden eyes. He's muscular and has enormous strength mainly in his arms (unfortunately, I found that out on my own; it's not a good idea to anger him very much). He also carries a big scythe with him all the time, but he doesn't use it for anything useful. He probably only likes to have his hands full so he'd have an excuse not to help any old ladies with heavy bags.

His personality irritates me quite often, to be honest. Let me explain; he used to run an... organization, for the lack of a better word. When his kids - my father and his 5 siblings - grew up, he feared that they'd overthrow him and run the organization themselves, so he started working against them. Yeah; against his own children. I don't really understand why he thought that; just because he'd overthrown his father, who'd been running the organization before him, didn't mean that his children had to get those genes, too. And, isn't that better than a complete stranger getting the lead position? At least that way, it would stay in the family.

Anyway; behaving like that, he created his enemies from his own children and later on, the unavoidable happened and my uncle - my father's younger brother - forced him to step down to rule himself. Because of that, my grandfather is kind of an unwanted person in our family, which means he isn't invited to parties or any meetings; neither family, nor organization ones. Often, my uncle even talks about him like he doesn't even exist. It's kind of mean, but on the other hand, he'd caused that himself. If only he was able to share the spotlight...

So, bitter that everyone'd turned away from him, my grandfather got angry at our whole family and a few years ago, he started planning a comeback. He even managed to get quite a lot of people on his side, and with those people, he attempted to steal back my uncle's position about two months ago. Thankfully, he didn't succeed, even though there was a time when it looked like he could; even though I don't agree with my uncle on many things, with my grandfather as the leader it'd be a nightmare. I sincerely hope that it'll finally break through his thick skull that nobody sane here wants him and his odd, old-fashioned ideas.

Well... you can guess what my relationship with him looks like, given that he's always worked against our family. Ever since he'd tried to convince me to join him and go against my father, I've despised him. Later, he hurt my girlfriend (well, at that point, she was only my friend) by recruiting the boy she'd looked up to as her hero, and then later on several more occasions, what lead to him losing every chance he'd had left for us acting civil to each other. (Him attacking me with his scythe didn't do much help, either. Do I look like a crop? I sure hope not...) Along with my cousins, I helped my father, uncles and aunts in this fight for the leader's position. As I said before; my family's messed up.

That's about all about the person I dislike the most, a.k.a. my grandfather. You can meet him on your own and find out if what I wrote is true, but I advise you not to. It's quite possible that my grandfather has turned even bitterer after his last loss. Or, he's gone crazy and at this very moment, he's dancing on the table in some night club. I don't know; he hasn't contacted any of us since August; and to be honest, I really don't mind.

P.S. Paul, you couldn't have picked a better topic to write about. I hope you understood everything; I had to write it like that in case some other teacher is reading over your shoulder at the moment.

P.P.S. Can you even put P.S.-s in an essay?

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_Did you like it? I wrote it in about thirty minutes, so it might not be so great. Anyways; please don't flame the essay because I got the formal side wrong. I know absolutely nothing about how an essay should look like - well, not in the US - so I just made the top part up. And, the essay would burn if you flame it. What would Paul grade then?_

_I know Percy's dyslexic, but just assume that this is what he meant to write, okay? If I deliberately messed the spelling up, I'm sure there would be some people who would mention it very quickly. Plus, I'm too proud of my spelling to make mistakes on purpose :) It's the only thing I'm sure I can get right in English._


	2. The Grading

_Thank you! After just one day, this story became my most viewed one. Now, it has 449 views, 8 reviews, 12 favorites and 4 alerts, more than I've ever hoped for. You guys are amazing!_

_Special thanks to P.S.A, BlackGryphon101, AquamarineCloverx3, Lydia Stanette, IamNyssaDaughterofHephaestus , IAmAnAnonymousDaughterOfThee ny, SugarIsHEALTHY and one guest for reviewing._

_BlackGryphon101 and the guest wanted me to make a sequel, so I combined their requests and made this chapter. This is for you!_

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_...I only wish he realizes that he'll never buy my love with money. Money might rule the world, but for me, fatherly love will be always above it._

_Rachel E. Dare_

_Oh, and can you make Percy read his essay in front of the class? Pretty please with a cherry on top?_

Paul Blofis smiled, clicking a red pen and started grading Rachel's essay. As usual, there was only a minimal amount of mistakes; this time, only two times Paul had to correct Rachel's grammar.

Paul looked at the stack of essays that he hadn't graded yet. He had them in alphabetical order, so next, there was Franklin, Gordon, Iverson and then Jackson. Percy's essay was one that he was looking forward to the most, not just because he was his stepson, but mostly because he was sure nobody's family was as interesting as his. Paul was sure that in this essay, Percy would write things about the gods or monsters (or demigods, but Paul didn't think he'd pick a demigod for this essay - well, maybe except Luke) that he wouldn't find out any other way. Of course, there was also a chance that he'd picked him, but Paul dared to think that their relationship was good enough for Percy to pick someone else. At least, Paul had never tried to kill Percy, unlike some other Percy's family members he could mention.

James Franklin's essay was next. The school chess champion's essay described the boy's aunt, who had had a horrible argument with his parents, after which she moved away and ended every connection with the boy's family. The essay would've been good, but James' apostrophes seemed to go on a vacation - there wasn't any apostroph in the whole essay. Not a single one. Paul counted total of 34 apostrophes missing, and that turned into many grammar/spelling points missing from James' score.

Mark Gordon wrote about his dad; how he was almost constantly drunk and he hated it. He even wrote some choice words to describe his dad with. Normally, Paul would've taken points off for this, but he decided to cut Mark some slack; he knew that his home life wasn't quite great and this was probably his way to vent his anger.

Amber Iverson, the last person before Percy, wrote about her cousin Isabelle, who was two years older than her. Amber wrote that Isabelle always picked on her and called her names, making fun of her for being younger and not knowing to do all the things Isabelle did. She used to taunt her about being slow, stupid and a crybaby. Amber then wrote that she wasn't as bad nowadays, she'd calmed down a lot, but Amber doubted their relationship could ever get past civil. Paul liked grading Amber's work; her handwriting was neat and even though she wasn't very good friends with grammar, at least Paul could clearly see what she'd written; he didn't have to decipher her handwriting like, for example, Mark Gordon's.

Paul wrote a big red B on Amber's essay, put it on top of Mark's and reached for Percy's essay in anticipation. Just as he took it in his hands, the bell rang - the lesson ended. Paul looked around the empty staff room; he was the only teacher who had a free period, so he'd decided to use the quiet and grade as many essays as he could; after all, the more he graded at school, the less remained for home and the more free time he had. Shrek the Third was on TV that night, and that was another motivation for Paul to be done with grading as soon as possible.

The staff room door opened and Paul's best colleague-friend Peter Wengren came in. Peter taught Chemistry and Gymnastics. An unusual combination? Maybe, but you have to have quick reflexes to stop a flask full of acid from falling to the ground and you have to be able to run fast if you miss the flask.

"'Lo Paul," Peter said. "Grading?"

Paul nodded. "I'm using my free time."

"Which class do you have?" Peter asked. "Iverson, Jackson; oh, I know now. Jackson's next, right? Your stepson," Peter said, taking a seat next to Paul.

"Yes," Paul confirmed.

Meanwhile, other teachers came into the staff room, mostly talking amongst themselves.

"You know... he has to take after his father. His biological father, I mean," Peter said. "You're a teacher, Sally is a writer... I thought he'd be more... into school, you know."

'You have no idea how much he takes after Poseidon,' Paul thought, but instead said, "Why; do you give him F-s? You know that he has dyslexia and he'll never be someone who has clear A-s."

"No, I just... you know what, forget I said anything. Can I take a look?" Peter asked, pointing at Percy's essay.

"Sure. I was just about to read it," Paul responded, putting the essay between him and Peter. He knew he wasn't going to be able to grade the essay at school, but he was looking forward to it too much to just leave it for home.

Paul and Peter started reading the essay. Paul wasn't very surprised when he saw the title; Kronos was one of his guesses, the others being Ares and the monsters.

Throughout the essay, Paul was chuckling; Percy's description made his family seem so... normal, like they weren't the immortal gods of Olympus but regular people. He had to say; this was definitely Percy's best essay ever. Of course, it was all because of the topic; Paul saw that Percy was trying to ridicule Kronos and his motives to start the war; but now, Paul had proof that Percy could write good essays when he wanted to.

On the other hand, Peter, who had no idea who Percy was really describing, wasn't so amused. When he finished reading, he looked creeped out and he was looking at Paul weirdly.

"What kind of family is that?! Incest shrugged off, attacking each other with a scythe - that isn't normal!"

Paul sighed. "He explained that it isn't considered incest. Percy's family... they come from a different culture." Paul saw that Peter wanted to say something, so he held up a hand to silence him. "I'm not saying that attacking each other with a scythe is normal according to them, but you had to see that Percy's grandfather isn't really sane, even by their standards."

Peter shook his head. "Crazy. What did he mean by 'in case some other teacher reads over your shoulder' anyway?"

"You know; top secret business. He didn't want to give away any names, because who knows who all might read this."

"You have a point," Peter admitted. "But look, it's like he knew I was going to read this. How could he have known?"

'He asked Rachel,' Paul wanted to say, but he didn't want to overdose Peter on things he shouldn't know. "He doesn't trust us teachers," he said instead, shrugging.

"Weirdos, the lot of them. I'd like to know what's that secret organization," Peter said.

"Sorry, but if I told you, you'd call a mental institute on me. Anyway; it's not up to me to decide who can and who can't know about it."

Paul put Percy's essay back on the pile of the undone essays. Rachel's plea came to his mind. He looked at Peter, who was busying himself with his own papers, probably marking their conversation as finished, and he decided not to make Percy read the essay. If that was how Peter reacted, Paul doubted Percy's classmates (except Rachel, obviously) would react any better. He certainly didn't want Percy bullied because of an essay he'd assigned.

The bell rang again. Paul had to go to teach when suddenly, he got an idea. He took a pencil and softly, so that Percy would be able to erase it, wrote, 'Percy, isn't it late to ask in a P.S. whether you can write a P.S.? And P.S., please erase this message when you read it.'

After that, Paul hurried out of the staff room, because he was teaching the next period on the other side of the school. He hoped he wasn't going to be late, even though being late to that class meant spending less time in there, and that didn't sound so bad. But it's not possible for all children to be angels, is it?

***_Approximately 23 hours and 25 minutes later_***

"Hey Rachel," Percy whispered. "Can I borrow your eraser?"

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_Just in case you're wondering, Percy and Rachel both got an A._


	3. The Reading

_Seriously? 1334 views, 23 reviews, 23 favorites, 11 alerts and one community?_

_Guys, you're spoiling me! Now I had to make this chapter extra long :) (1st chapter - 2 pages in Word; 2nd chapter - 4 pages; this chapter - 27 pages...)_

_Thanks to SugarIsHEALTHY, Sexy-People-Do-Not-Die, Cerulean Apocalypse, prankprincess123, percyjason, Pandastyle, TheMysteriousHi, WeirdButCool, annabeth the wise girl, trustingHim17, AquamarineCloverx3, Goddess of Talk and Keeta-x-Tribias for reviewing._

_To percyjason: What I meant was that I didn't want people to comment that the formal side of the essay was wrong. (And if it wasn't, call me the Oracle, 'cause I had absolutely no idea...)_

_To Goddess of Talk: I explained my reasons why I didn't want Percy to read the essay in front of the class. I hope this will be a good enough replacement :) In the end, Percy got the essay with the grade and all and he saw Paul's message, so he asked Rachel to borrow her eraser to erase the message._

_To prankprincess123: In the fourth chapter :)_

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When Percy invited his friends and his dad to a dinner party one Friday night in early November, he hoped he'd be able to take his mind off school. In his opinion, it was unacceptable for anyone except the lunatics that were Athena and her children to think about school on Friday night of all days. But since Athena's children were not only walking Wikipedias, but also good warriors – and Percy would know that better than anyone, being on the receiving end of Annabeth's blade countless times after he said the wrong thing at the wrong time – he thought it safer not to mention this to them.

Watching his guests talking among themselves (or hiding behind a couch and praying that the angry daughter of the God of War won't find them), Percy smiled. They all looked like they were having a good time, and that's what he had been hoping for.

There were his mom and Paul, talking with Tyson and Poseidon (Athena had been planning to come, too, but when she heard that Poseidon was coming, she immediately changed her mind); Connor and Travis Stoll (the ones behind the couch), Percy only hoped they wouldn't cause any damage to the couch; Katie Gardner and Rachel Elizabeth Dare were eating cheesecake that his mom had baked this afternoon; Clarisse was searching for the Stolls, the shoelaces on her sneakers torn since she realized that the Sons of Hermes had tied them together and in her fury, she untied the knot with a knife, Alexander the Great-style; Apollo, who'd asked Percy whether he could come, too, and who was cheering Clarisse on; and Grover Underwood, Nico di Angelo and Thalia Grace, who were stuffing their mouths with cheese pizza, but on a… _higher level_ than Katie and Rachel.

Thalia had gotten a special permission to leave the Hunters for this night, and Percy thought he could congratulate himself that Artemis allowed one of her Hunters to attend a party hosted by a boy. Personally, out of everything he had done, Percy thought that getting Artemis not to hate him was the deed that gave him most reasons to boast.

Percy was happy that the night wasn't looking like it was going to turn into a disaster, but still, he felt like something was missing. Looking at his guests, he realized it almost instantly. Annabeth, his girlfriend, wasn't in the living room like everyone else.

Normally, this wouldn't faze him; Annabeth knew her way around the flat, and most probably she had just gone to the bathroom; but something was telling him to go and find her, and he decided to listen to the feeling. Last time he had a similar urge, he found Annabeth building a replica of the Eiffel tower from coat hangers and he came just in time to see it for the last few seconds before it fell. After Annabeth jokingly accused him of 'having a bad aura that makes buildings fall', she said that it was because the floor was too slippery.

With the memory on his mind, Percy entered his room, only to find Annabeth rummaging through his school bag.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Percy asked.

"Fulfilling my duty as a good girlfriend; I'm making sure you don't fail," Annabeth responded, grinning.

Percy huffed. "You have such faith in me, you know?"

"No faith, experience," Annabeth said cheekily. "And I think I was right to check your bag. The things you have inside, honestly…"

"What's wrong about my bag?" Percy asked defensively.

"_What's wrong?_ Should I list the things I found inside? A lone sock, at least ten candy wrappers, a cheat sheet, a grocery sales slip, a car magazine, it goes on. You can't say you need all those things at school!"

"Just so you'd know; that sock is from my P.E. kit, so I need it at school," Percy stuck his tongue out at Annabeth.

"One? Call me weird, but I've always thought that since people have two legs, they also need two socks," Annabeth said, sarcasm evident in her voice.

Percy folded his arms, pouting. "There's no winning against you!"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You're just figuring this out? Hey, look, what's this?" she pulled a paper from the bag. "An essay?"

"Yeah," Percy confirmed, recognizing the paper. "An essay about my gramps."

"Your gram- I mean, grandfather?"

"And your great-grandfather," Percy added.

"What? Don't tell me-" Annabeth said, a grin starting to form on her face.

Percy nodded, also grinning.

"Can I read it?"

"Yeah, no problem, but it's in English."

"Oh." Annabeth's enthusiasm decreased a little, but it was back immediately. She jumped to her feet and sprinted to the living room. "Rachel, could you read this to me, please?"

"Sure, don't ask me whether you can show it to her," Percy muttered, following Annabeth. 'Although, she would've made me say yes anyway,' he added in his head.

Rachel took the essay into her hands and her eyes widened. "Is this…" she trailed off, looking at Percy, who had just appeared in the doorway.

Percy nodded.

"What is it?" Katie asked curiously, looking at the piece of paper, but being dyslexic, what she read didn't make sense to her.

"Percy's essay about the Titan of Time," Rachel said.

That alerted everyone in the room. Everyone stopped talking, eating or simply doing whatever they were doing.

"That, I'd like to hear," Travis Stoll said, completely forgetting about the piece of pineapple pizza under his nose, which, as Katie would tell her children Hayley and Simon twenty years into the future, was definitely the first. But back to the present.

"Wait; Percy, is that the essay that I assigned about a month ago?" Paul asked. Seeing Percy nod, he continued. "So, what would you say if Rachel read it out loud for us all? I'm sure you'd enjoy it."

"Um…" Percy scratched the back of his head, trying to remember whether he'd insulted any of the present guests. He didn't think so – after all, the main topic was Kronos – so he nodded. "Alright."

"Heh, Percy's essay. I'm looking forward to it," Thalia said.

"Me too," Poseidon said. "I really wonder how you described my father."

Rachel cleared her throat and started reading.

_**October 8th, 2009 Perseus Jackson, 10th Grade**_

Thalia gasped. "Tenth grade? You're so grown up, why didn't you tell me?" She wiped imaginary tears from her eyes.

Everyone laughed while Percy scowled. "Just because you can't grow up-"

"Percy, Thalia, don't fight," Sally scolded, amused.

Apollo shook his head. "It's no use, Sally. If you saw how much their dads fight, you'd be thankful for this."

Poseidon glared at Apollo, but he shrugged it off, unfazed.

_**My Grandfather**_

_**(Essay)**_

_**Goal: Describe your most disliked family member and the reason why you don't like him / her.**_

"Well, you had it very hard, didn't you?" Grover commented.

"I did! To decide which one of the immortals who hate me I should describe…"

Annabeth sighed. 'If you sometimes thought before you spoke, you might have had less immortal enemies.' Similar thoughts were racing also through Sally's and Poseidon's minds.

**My grandfather on my father's side is a very interesting person, to say the least. **

"Interesting isn't a word I'd use," Nico said.

"Nico right. He not interesting, he is bad person," Tyson agreed.

**For one, he's my grandfather, but also my girlfriend's great-grandfather and the father of the activities director of the summer camp I go to,**

"Um… I don't want to be rude, but some of the relationships you have are… well, better not to be shouted out in public," Rachel said.

"It's alright," Apollo waved her off. "Personally, I try not to think of anyone in mortal terms; it gives me a migraine. To think that someone can be a generation older than me but at the same time two generations younger than me… it's confusing for everyone."

As on cue, everyone turned to look at Annabeth. She huffed. "Just because I'm smart doesn't mean nothing is confusing for me!"

Clarisse shrugged. "You're the one with five-Terabyte memory, so you're the most likely candidate."

Annabeth looked affronted. "Do I look like a computer to you?"

"Yes," Connor yelled. "Can I plug you in?"

"Can I arrange you a meeting with Nico's dad for tonight, eleven PM?" Annabeth responded in a sweet voice. Connor shut up.

"Moving on…" Rachel said, fighting laughter in her voice.

**and my girlfriend is older than me by six months; and even though we're related, me dating her isn't considered incest. But, if I started to describe the many ways in which my family's messed up, I wouldn't get to the point until tomorrow. **

"Aw," Thalia pouted. "Why didn't you include me into your family?"

Percy frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You said your family's messed up. I'm not, so that probably means you don't consider me your family," Thalia fake-broke down sobbing.

Apollo raised an eyebrow. "Wasn't it you who used to sprout needles and pinecones? Even by our standards, that isn't normal."

"Except for nymphs," Poseidon added.

"Yeah, except for nymphs," Apollo corrected himself.

Thalia blushed. "That doesn't mean I'm messed up."

"And if Percy wrote that there's a tree in his family tree, wouldn't that sound messed up?" Katie asked.

Apollo, Percy and the Stolls burst out laughing, the others' mouths twitched into a smile.

"What did I say?" Katie asked, confused.

"A tree… in his… family… tree," Travis gasped, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Andy in my candy," Connor yelled, making everyone laugh hysterically.

After three minutes, Rachel calmed down enough to start reading again.

**(And if I started to blab about my amazing girlfriend, I'd be here until Christmas 2019.)**

This sentence got mixed reactions from the crowd. Sally, Paul and Poseidon smiled at Percy; Thalia, Nico, Connor and Clarisse mimed throwing up; Katie and Rachel cooed; Annabeth snuggled under his arm and rested her head on his shoulder; Grover, but what Percy didn't really get, also Travis, were looking at him with expressions that read 'Man, I know how you feel'.

**My grandfather is fairly tall and he has short, blonde hair that hasn't started turning gray yet and weird, golden eyes. **

Annabeth's breath hitched. "Luke?"

Percy nodded. "Seeing as I didn't see him while he was in chops form; and honestly, I don't think I missed out on much; yeah."

Travis' and Connor's faces were stony. Hero or not, to them he was always going to be the disgrace they used to call their big brother.

**He's muscular and has enormous strength mainly in his arms (unfortunately, I found that out on my own; it's not a good idea to anger him very much).**

"Really? So why did you keep doing so?" Annabeth asked.

"Hey, not my fault he made me angry."

**He also carries a big scythe with him all the time, but he doesn't use it for anything useful. **

Nico snorted. "Right. It's just a lethal weapon that reaps the soul from the body, but nothing useful."

Thalia shook her head. "I don't like saying this, but I probably know how Kelp Head meant it. He was the enemy, and he attacked us with the scythe. That wasn't useful for us. For him, yes; but for us, no."

'They're so similar,' Annabeth thought. 'Even I didn't get it, and I've known him for way longer than Thalia.'

"He should have worked on field with scythe, then he be useful," Tyson said.

"Exactly," Katie grinned and reached over to high-five Tyson.

Everyone laughed. "You should've totally told him that during the battle," Travis chortled.

"Demeter had," Apollo laughed. "It was priceless."

"Imagine this: The great Titan, replaced by a harvester," Connor said, cracking up and sending everyone into another wave of laughter.

At the beginning, Percy had been starting to regret inviting the Stolls along with Clarisse and Katie – both girls were threatening to disembowel the boys. Now, picking himself up from the ground where he'd fallen from laughing so much, he was glad he had invited them.

**He probably only likes to have his hands full so he'd have an excuse not to help any old ladies with heavy bags.**

"Sorry Percy, but I can't imagine him doing that," Poseidon said, looking at the essay oddly.

"Neither can I," Percy said, "but I couldn't write the truth, could I?"

"No," Paul shook his head. "I got enough weird looks as it was."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"I let Peter, your chemistry teacher, read it," Paul admitted sheepishly.

"Paul!" Sally exclaimed, shocked. "Why would you risk that?"

"Um… I just wanted to see how he would react. I guess I'm lucky Percy wrote it like this and he didn't give away any names… but Peter thinks I'm mad anyway."

"Lucky indeed," Poseidon said with narrowed eyes. He may be one of the more laidback gods, but shouting their existence to the world wasn't something he let slide.

**His personality irritates me quite often, to be honest. **

"Only often?" Thalia questioned.

"Okay, always," Percy corrected himself.

"That's what I thought," Thalia said smugly.

**Let me explain; **

"Oh no! Everyone find a bunker; Percy's going to explain something," Travis yelled, jumping over the couch and hiding behind it.

Katie rolled her eyes and pulled Travis from behind the couch by his ears.

"Ow," Travis complained. "Now I'm going to look like an elf!"

"At least you'll realize that stupidity hurts."

"You're the one who hurt me," Travis pointed out. "Does that mean you're stupidity? Sorry, sorry! Um… nice, sharp piece of metal… now, can you put it back?"

"Ahem," Rachel coughed. "I'd like to finish this tonight."

Travis and Katie blushed, realizing that everyone was looking at them. Katie covered her face with her hair and motioned for Rachel to go on.

**he used to run an... organization, for the lack of a better word. **

Clarisse snorted. "Organization? Seriously, Prissy?"

"Oh," Nico stuck his hand out in the air. "Can I be treasurer? You know, since my dad controls riches and all."

"Absolutely not," Annabeth said firmly.

"Aw, why not?" Nico pouted.

"Because then, Thalia would be CEO, and I think we don't need any more threats to end the world."

"HEY!" Thalia huffed, but she was ignored, for everyone else was cracking up.

**When his kids - my father and his 5 siblings - grew up, he feared that they'd overthrow him and run the organization themselves, so he started working against them. Yeah; against his own children. **

"Nail in my snail," Connor shouted suddenly. When he saw that he now had more space than he used to have, because everyone inched away from him and was wearing 'What the heck?!' expressions, he pouted. "Hey, wasn't that funny?"

"What the-" Thalia began.

"Thalia!" Annabeth scolded.

"-was that, Connor?"

"Thalia, don't cuss, there are children here," Annabeth whispered to her best friend.

"Hey, I'm the third oldest here," Nico exclaimed, overhearing what Annabeth said.

Travis snorted. "You just said you're a little kid."

"No I didn't," Nico argued.

"Yes you did," Annabeth said, "because I didn't mean you. I meant Tyson; and also, Mrs. Ja- _Sally_ doesn't like when people cuss."

"Annabeth's right," Sally sighed. "I don't understand why you have to use those words. If you have to… relieve yourself, there are other, milder words you can use."

Thalia shook her head. "Using alternative words, it just doesn't feel right."

Apollo snorted. "My sis is such a hypocrite. She hates it when I cuss, but she happily chooses a Lieutenant that cusses like a sailor."

"Aye," Thalia saluted to nobody in particular, rolling her eyes.

"Why does one say cuss like a sailor anyway?" Percy asked. "It's not like knowledge of cuss words matters when you want to work on a ship, is it? Like, none to four – lifeguard; five to nine – cox; ten and more – captain…"

All he got were shrugs. "I don't know," Annabeth said, speaking for everyone. "Can we continue? Rachel?"

**I don't really understand why he thought that; just because he'd overthrown his father, who'd been running the organization before him, didn't mean that his children had to get those genes, too. **

"It was him who'd gotten his father's genes, not us," Poseidon said.

"Right," Annabeth gasped. "Ouranos didn't trust his children so he imprisoned the Cyclopes and Hekantonkheires in Tartarus."

Poseidon nodded. "And it seems like distrust is still in our family; just look at Zeus being all paranoid about the Lightning Bolt affair three years ago. I mean; why would I want to rule the sky when I've got enough work with just the sea in my hands."

"Dad feels the same way," Nico said.

"I know, he told me so," Percy, Travis and Katie said and looked at each other, surprised.

"Whoa. I know about Percy, but when did you two meet my dad?" Nico pointed at Travis and Katie.

"On a hike, about a week ago," Travis said.

"Hang on; _Hades_ went _hiking?!_" Apollo yelled, shocked.

"Yes, Lord Apollo," Katie confirmed. "Although, he probably didn't walk the whole way up the mountain; he could've just zapped himself on the top."

"I think you're wrong, Katie," Poseidon said. "You can't remember this, Apollo, but before we decided who gets which part of the world, Hades used to like stretching his feet on fresh air. I bet he went all the way on foot."

"Somehow, I can't imagine him doing that; no offence," Grover said.

"It's quite alright, Grover. He's changed a lot since then; if you saw a photo of Hades three thousand years ago, you wouldn't believe it was him. On the other hand, I've changed, too; and people ignore it. I mean; I've stopped wearing a beard about 1700 years ago, but everyone insists on picturing me with a long, scruffy beard. It's annoying."

Apollo chortled. "Okay, can we move on from your beard issues?"

**And, isn't that better than a complete stranger getting the lead position? At least that way, it would stay in the family.**

"And pray tell me, Percy, how could've a stranger become the leader?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know! I wrote this a month ago. You can't expect me to know what I was thinking a month ago!"

"Well, I guess you're right, since you often don't remember what I told you a minute ago," Annabeth admitted.

Nico snickered. "Is sclerosis catching up on you?"

"Only sixty years after you, _senior_," Percy shot back.

"Guys, keep the interrupting down," Rachel groaned. "I haven't even gotten to the half."

**Anyway; behaving like that, he created his enemies from his own children and later on, the unavoidable happened and my uncle - my father's younger brother - forced him to step down to rule himself. **

"That good happened. Kronos bad guy, he would not be good leader," Tyson said.

"Tyson's right. I don't want to imagine what it would be like with him as our leader," Grover shuddered. "He'd probably care about pollution even less than… well, than it's now."

"There would be more fighting," Clarisse said.

"Yeah, you're Ares' daughter, all right," Apollo commented. "Even if I didn't know you, I'd know that you're related to him. You're just like a girl version of him."

Clarisse looked proud.

"Daddy's little girl," Connor snickered.

"What. Did. You. Say?" Clarisse gritted through her teeth.

"Umm… that… that this fiddle hurl?" Connor tried.

"Dude, that made no sense!"

"Anyway; forced him to step down – a nice way to say chopped him to pieces," Nico pointed out.

"Yes, but basically, it's true," Paul said. "I knew immediately what he was talking about."

**Because of that, my grandfather is kind of an unwanted person in our family, which means he isn't invited to parties or any meetings; neither family, nor organization ones. **

"Thank the gods I didn't have to invite him here," Percy muttered. "He would've killed the mood."

**Often, my uncle even talks about him like he doesn't even exist. It's kind of mean, but on the other hand, he'd caused that himself. If only he was able to share the spotlight...**

"That's only because Zeus was far too afraid to even think about him possibly returning to power," Poseidon said. "And I'm afraid that you wouldn't find a god or Titan that wouldn't mind sharing the power with somebody else."

"I know, but again; I couldn't write that, could I?"

**So, butter **

"_Butter?_ What has butter got to do with anything?" Grover asked, perplexed.

"No idea," Rachel said, "but that's what it says; butter."

Percy smiled sheepishly. "That was probably supposed to be _bitter_."

"Why? I think butter makes complete sense," Travis said. "Don't let them convince you you're wrong when you're not, Percy!"

Everyone except Connor, who looked like he agreed with his brother, facepalmed.

"Thank the gods you're only distantly related to me," Annabeth muttered.

**bitter that everyone'd turned away from him, my grandfather got angry at our whole family and a few years ago, he started planning a comeback. **

"That's Luke again, not Kronos," Annabeth said, looking at the ground.

Percy hugged his girlfriend to him, seeing she was distraught. She had finally accepted that Luke had betrayed her, and then he went and became a hero. Now, she didn't know what to think anymore.

**He even managed to get quite a lot of people on his side, **

"Children of minor gods," Percy said, looking pointedly at the two present gods.

"Athena has already given us a lecture about that," Apollo rolled his eyes. "We got the point."

**and with those people, he attempted to steal back my uncle's position about two months ago. **

"More than two months," Clarisse said.

"You realize that Percy wrote this a long time ago and Rachel isn't making this up as she goes?" Thalia asked.

Rachel snorted. "I'd be good if I was, wouldn't I?"

**Thankfully, he didn't succeed, even though there was a time when it looked like he could; **

All demigods frowned, thinking about that time, when they thought all hope was lost but they kept fighting, not wanting to just give up.

**even though I don't agree with my uncle on many things, with my grandfather as the leader it'd be a nightmare. **

"Tell me about it," Apollo commented.

Nico frowned. "Excuse me, but weren't you born after the first Titan was ended?"

"Details, details," Apollo waved his hand like the word was an annoying mosquito.

**I sincerely hope that it'll finally break through his thick skull that nobody sane here wants him and his odd, old-fashioned ideas.**

Connor snorted. "That's one way to put it."

"Odd, old-fashioned ideas," Annabeth repeated, amused. "I wouldn't think of these adjectives when talking about Kronos."

"I'm sure," Rachel agreed. "Especially since Percy spelled old with double l and wrote faschioned instead of fashioned."

"Hey, give me a break, I'm dyslexic!"

"This was Percy's grammatically best essay," Paul said. "Usually, it's worse. I don't blame you, of course; it's not your fault, but that's the truth."

**Well... you can guess what my relationship with him looks like, given that he always works against our family. **

"Let me guess; passionate, drowning each other in presents every Christmas?" Connor said.

"Yes," Percy said dryly.

"Well, he got the 'drowning each other' part right, at least," Thalia said.

Percy snorted. "Right. I dare you to drown me, Thalia. Son of the Sea god here; I can breathe underwater, remember?" Percy imitated a fish swallowing air bubbles, his hands acting like gills.

'And it's really useful,' Annabeth thought, remembering not only the night after the Titan war, but also the situation with the Island of Sirens. She had been beating herself up for that mistake for a long time; her own pride had nearly gotten herself killed, and if Percy hadn't realized she was gone, it would've most likely happened.

**Ever since he'd tried to convince me to join him and go against my father, I've despised him. Later, he hurt my girlfriend (well, at that point, she was only my friend) **

"Yeah, 'cause you two were stubbornly in denial," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"You cost me ten Drachmas by being so slow, you know?" Travis complained.

"You placed bets on us?" Percy and Annabeth yelled, indignant.

Meanwhile, it took all Connor had not to burst out laughing. Travis didn't know that, but the truth was that he, Liam and Laura had had a bet about Travis and Katie. Since the bet had ended before Katie turned eighteen, Liam had won, but that didn't matter to Connor right now. He only found it ironic that Travis was complaining about a bet he'd lost, but he was a part of a bet himself, and he didn't know it.

"Yeah," Grover said. "We were tired of you both just skirting around each other. It was annoying."

**by recruiting the boy she'd looked up to as her hero, and then later on several more occasions, what lead to him losing every chance he'd had left for us acting civil to each other. **

Sally sighed. She knew it was hopeless, but she still wished Percy wouldn't have to fight all those gods and Titans that wanted to take over the world.

Nico snorted. "Those two acting civil? When pink fluffy rhinos rain."

This sentence got everyone looking at him weirdly. "Nico… you know, sometimes I really wonder about you…" Thalia said hesitantly.

"Hey, I just wanted to pick a thing that's very unlikely to happen."

"It might very well happen if you give my brother ideas," Poseidon groaned. "I really hope he isn't listening."

Rachel grinned. "It would be like in that movie; Cloudy with a Chance of Pachyderms."

"It would make the news for at least a week," Grover said.

"Imagine the headlines; the city flooded by thousands of fluffy rhinos," Percy snickered.

Travis leaned to Connor. "Dude; are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he whispered.

Katie noticed Travis' suspicious move and, suspecting that his intentions weren't clear, put a hand on each Stoll's head and forced them apart, turning each head to face the opposite direction. "No flooding my cabin with pink fluffy rhinos, do you hear me?"

"Yes," the Stolls said immediately.

"Or any fluffy toys," Katie corrected herself.

Travis and Connor deflated. "Aw, come on!"

"They're just like Percy and Annabeth if Percy was a prankster," Thalia whispered to Rachel. Rachel nodded.

**(Him attacking me with his scythe didn't do much help, either. Do I look like a crop? I sure hope not...) **

Katie looked Percy over. "Well, I see some similarities," she joked.

"What; looks? IQ?" Thalia asked.

"Manners," Annabeth added.

"Strength," Clarisse threw in.

"Interestingness," Nico snorted.

"Looking smart," Rachel joined, giggling.

"Hey! What is that; girls-pick-on-Percy day?" Percy pouted.

"What about me?" Nico complained.

"…what; did I say anything wrong?"

Nico glared at Percy and made a rude hand gesture.

Apollo gasped theatrically. "Where are your manners, young man? I should report this to Hades; I really should."

"No, please," Nico groaned. "He'd ground me, and there's nothing to do in the Underworld when you're grounded."

"So that should be a motivation for you not to be vulgar," Paul said.

**Along with my cousins, I helped my father, uncles and aunts in this fight for the leader's position. **

"And without you, Percy… without all of you, we wouldn't make it," Poseidon said, smiling.

"Thanks, Dad/Lord Poseidon," the demigods replied.

**As I said before; my family's messed up.**

Remembering Thalia's comment, Percy looked at her, anticipating some reaction. Noticing this, Thalia huffed. "Okay, I'm messed up. Happy?"

Percy tapped his chin thoughtfully. "No; you were right," he said, grinning. "You're not messed up; you're one level further."

The air around Thalia crackled. "You're asking to become fried," she said threateningly.

Annabeth shivered. This sounded too similar to the threat Ares had made to Percy on their first quest, and that wasn't a pleasant comparison.

"Can he be a French fry, please?" Connor said eagerly.

Thalia shrugged. "Fine, a French fry, then. I don't care."

"But… I don't speak French," Percy protested.

All teens facepalmed, except the Stolls, who looked like they thought Percy's argument was valid, and Clarisse, who was too caught up in memories to react. 'Silena could speak French,' she thought sadly. 'Every time when she didn't want to tell me something, she'd say it in French.'

**That's about all about the person I dislike the most, a.k.a. my grandfather. You can meet him on your own and find out if what I wrote is true, **

"Why would you want anyone to do so?" Grover asked incredulously.

"Wait for it," was Percy's reply.

**but I advise you not to. **

"Oh. That's better. You got me worried here for a second, man."

"Why in the world would I send anyone to meet him? I think everyone sane wouldn't want anything to do with him," Percy said.

Thalia shook her head. "Not only sane," she disagreed. "After all; you don't want to meet him either, Percy."

"Good one, Thalia," Annabeth giggled as Percy glowered at the two girls.

**It's quite possible that my grandfather has turned even bitterer after his last loss. **

"Or hopefully, he's not even chops like before but flour and we'll never find out," Travis said.

"Flour? So he's the crop?" Katie asked.

"In stubbornness, definitely," Apollo said.

"Um… sorry, I don't understand."

"You can't persuade a crop to grow any other way than straight up, just like you can't persuade Kronos to change his mind. Simple as that."

"Interesting theory," Annabeth mused.

"I can't make Percy tidy up his room; does this make him a crop?" Sally asked.

"_Mom!_" Percy yelled, but his voice was drowned in the others' laughter.

**Or, he's gone crazy and at this very moment, he's dancing on the table in some night club. **

A moment of shocked silence…

…Then, as on cue, everyone burst out laughing. Connor and Travis were rolling on the ground, as was Katie, since they'd pulled her down with them; Nico, Grover and Thalia had to hold onto each other to stop themselves from following the trio on the ground, their faces streamed with tears; Clarisse was chortling and shaking her head; Annabeth and Rachel were shaking with laughter, their faces completely red; Poseidon, Apollo and Tyson were just outright laughing; and Sally was laughing softly and smiling at her son's unusual imagination. Paul and Percy were just watching the laughing crowd with amused expressions.

"Bad images, Percy! Bad!" Connor yelled, covering his eyes.

"H-how did you come u-up with the idea, Percy?" Annabeth asked, hiccupping.

"I don't know. Spontaneously?"

It took a while, but eventually Rachel calmed down enough to read the last sentence.

**I don't know; he hasn't contacted any of us since August; and to be honest, I really don't mind.**

"That's all?" Nico asked.

"No, wait, there's a P.S." Rachel noticed.

Annabeth blinked. "A P.S.? In an essay?"

"P.S., like post cryptum?" Tyson asked.

"Scriptum, there's nothing cryptic about it," Annabeth corrected, "but yeah. What the Hades is that doing in an essay, Percy?"

"Um… I don't know?" Percy said sheepishly.

Annabeth sighed. "You're hopeless… but you wouldn't be you if you weren't."

**P.S. Paul, you couldn't have picked a better topic to write about. I hope you understood all; I had to write it like that in case some other teacher is reading over your shoulder at the moment.**

"I did, Percy," Paul said. "And what I didn't understand then, I understand now. As for the second point… I guess you know the answer."

**P.P.S. Can you even put P.S.-s in an essay?**

"And, finished," Rachel announced.

"Did you seriously add that?" Annabeth groaned. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Kiss me?" Percy suggested.

"You wish," Annabeth retorted, but she put her head on his shoulder anyway.

"Sappiness alert! Sappiness alert!" Connor yelled.

Katie hit him on the head. "You've just ruined the moment," she scolded the son of Hermes.

Rachel handed the essay to Percy, who was about to put it back in his bag when Annabeth stopped him.

"Wait!" She turned towards the gods. "Could one of you make a copy of this for me, please?"

Poseidon snapped his fingers and another paper, identical to the one in Percy's hand, appeared in Annabeth's lap. "Anything for my future daughter-in-law," he smiled.

Annabeth and Percy started choking on their own spit; their faces competing, which one could turn a deeper shade of red. "Future WHAT?"

Poseidon chuckled. "I'm just saying what I think."

Percy was glad he had a valid excuse to get out of sight and he hurried to his room to avoid embarrassment.

Annabeth didn't have that option, so she hid her flaming face behind her hair and put the paper in her jeans pocket. She wouldn't admit it, but she was secretly hoping that one day, she will become Poseidon's daughter-in-law. But it's not like anyone in the room needed her saying it out loud to figure it out for themselves.

After a while that was much longer than it was supposed to be, given that Percy had only gone to put a piece of paper into his bag, Percy returned to the living room, only to stop just behind the doorway. Looking at the room, he realized one important fact.

"Hey, where has all the pizza disappeared to?"

* * *

_So, was it any good? I've tried to write RtB stories before, but I always gave up on them so I didn't post them._

_To anyone who's wondering; yes, Travis and Katie are together. The hints about them are from my other story that I haven't posted yet, and I don't think I will be able to in near future, 'cause I've gotten an idea for a completely new chapter that I'm adding between the chapter two and former chapter three, now four. Also; the story as such is finished, but it's written in Slovak, so I have to translate it and finding words or phrases that translate exactly is sometimes difficult. And don't get me started on puns and poems :I  
_


	4. The Killing of Time

_Wow. 2657 wiews and 34 reviews. Thank you a thousand times! And to greekfreek101, Swallow in the Cloud, Meepmeep123, WeirdButCool, annabeth the wise girl, bluecapen, beauty behind the words, Kyuubi is Pimpin, Mythology212, fantasybookworm2012 and Erica-Daughter of Batman thanks 1001 times!_

_Anyways, sorry that it took a bit longer; my little brother has gotten into a computer game - he's playing it all the time - but the game is in English and he can't speak English yet, so his playing looks like "Would you translate this to me?" and "Tell me what this guy is saying." A stupid excuse, I know, but..._

_I've got to use this excuse you've been given_

_Like it's the only excuse I've got_

_You'll get bonus points if you guess the song correctly! :) It's a pity they're worth nothing..._

* * *

Watching the endless Great Prairies from the Argo II, Annabeth Chase felt very lonely. She kept reminding herself that it was only two days at worst until she saw Percy again, and that's when unpleasant thoughts started entering her brain. 'What if he won't remember me?', 'What if he's found himself another girlfriend?' and, worst of all, 'What if he's changed and he's not my Seaweed Brain anymore?'

Annabeth saw identical rows of fields; only here and there the pattern was disturbed by a town. No bigger city, no highway, not even a river was visible.

'Fields and fields,' Annabeth thought. 'That's something for a child of Demeter, not Poseidon.'

Suddenly, a wave of melancholy fell upon the daughter of Athena and she had to look away from the dry land below. She hadn't thought it was possible for a person to miss someone that much, but she was proved wrong. Somehow, this was even worse than two years ago. After the Mount St. Helens fiasco, she thought she'd lost him forever, the same way she'd lost Thalia; and to her, the situations were easier to cope with than her current one, when she knew where Percy was, knew why he was there, but couldn't visit him. When Percy and Thalia went 'missing' for the first time, both had miraculously returned, and they were the same as they used to be; but Annabeth knew that, while she would be very glad if this tradition continued, she couldn't allow herself to be convinced that it was going to.

"Hey Bethy, how much time do you reckon we've got until we get there?" Annabeth heard one of the Stolls ask. When she turned around to face him, she saw that there were both of them.

"First of all; if you keep calling me Bethy, I'll make sure two of the passengers get thrown overboard," Annabeth said conversationally.

Travis and Connor gulped. "Hey Jason! Dude, we can count on you, right?" Travis called to the son of Jupiter, who was, like Annabeth, watching the country running underneath the ship.

"And face the wrath of Annabeth? Are you crazy?" Jason responded.

"Some hero you are, not bothering to save two damsels in distress," Connor huffed. To that, Jason only laughed.

"Second," Annabeth continued like nothing happened, "I think we should be there in about two days, maybe less."

"Two days?" Travis groaned. "In two days' time, I'll be bored to death!"

"You?" Connor scoffed. "You've got a girlfriend to kiss; but what am I supposed to do?"

The brothers locked eyes and had a quiet discussion, during which Connor pointed at Jason and Travis nodded to whatever his brother told him and departed in the Roman's direction.

Annabeth suddenly felt sorry for Jason, but before she got to warn him, she felt something exiting the back pocket of her jeans, seemingly on its own. Abruptly turning around, she saw Connor holding a folded piece of paper in his hand and muttering a curse under his breath. "I thought it was a purse," Connor said, looking put down.

"Give it back," Annabeth snatched the paper from Connor. She kept it as a reminder of Percy, along with a photo of the two of them and a necklace with an inscription _Je t'aime_ that Percy had bought her in Paris after their quest for Hermes – but that's a long story involving a crane and a sewer geyser that we don't need to get into.

"Tough luck, man," Travis said, and Annabeth realized, what happened. Jason wasn't the victim after all; Travis was just providing distraction for Annabeth so Connor could pickpocket her. It was just their bad luck that they picked the wrong pocket to pickpocket.

"Hang on; I've seen that paper somewhere," Connor frowned.

"It's Percy's essay," Annabeth sighed. "Rachel read it at that party in autumn, remember?"

"Yeah… Hey, I've got an idea!" Travis yelled.

"Oh no; may the gods save us," Annabeth muttered.

"No; it's a good idea. What if… what if we tried to do something similar, so we wouldn't be bored? But with different questions, like who's the hottest or most terrifying or things like that."

Annabeth's face brightened. "You can say smart things when you want to, Stoll. Go gather everyone, we'll meet by the wheel," she said.

Ten minutes later, everyone met by the Argo's wheel. There were Annabeth, the Stolls, Katie, Rachel, Clarisse, Will, Jason, Piper and Leo, who was steering the ship.

"Everyone listen," Annabeth yelled to get the demigods' attention. "I know we're all looking forward to arriving at the Camp Jupiter, but we won't be there until the day after tomorrow, so Travis here came up with an idea to help us take our minds off this for a while."

There was a collective groan. Even Jason, Piper and Leo knew that when Travis or Connor came up with an idea, it was never harmless and it was almost always a prank.

"Hey people! Do you think Annabeth would gather all of you here if I suggested a prank war or something?" Travis asked.

Everyone got quiet, knowing that Annabeth would've never approved of it, and Travis wouldn't have gone to her with the idea, so it had to be something normal and sane.

"I thought so. How many of you were at Percy's dinner party when his essay was read?" Travis asked. Everyone except Jason, Piper, Leo and Will raised a hand. "Okay. I thought we could do something like that, but everyone would have a different topic and we'll draw lots for the topics. Then, everyone will put their 'essays' back and we'll draw lots for reading. I mean; you won't write your name or the name of the person you're writing about, and after you read the essay you picked, you'll have to guess who wrote it, and who it is about."

Murmurs of 'That doesn't sound bad.' or 'A good idea.' broke out, so Travis clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "So; does that mean you're in?"

"What was Percy's essay about?" Piper asked.

"Here," Annabeth pulled the copy of the original essay from her pocket. "Read; it's not long."

Piper took the essay and read it with Jason, Leo and Will. When they finished, they were all laughing.

"Nice," Piper said, chortling, when she returned the essay to Annabeth. Leo suggested making a paper plane out of it and sending it to Annabeth like that, but Piper stopped him, for Annabeth's sake. "But who's Paul?"

"Percy's stepfather and English teacher," Annabeth explained. "So, do you want to join?"

"Yeah, but Jason says he probably won't come."

"Why? Jason, why don't you want to play, too?" Annabeth asked.

"Well… someone has to stay and steer the ship," he said, not meeting Annabeth's eyes.

Annabeth scoffed. "You and I both know that's not the real reason."

"Alright! You guys are all going to write in Greek, aren't you? Well, I can't read Greek."

"I can tell the others to write in English if you want," Annabeth offered.

"No… I still don't have all my memories anyway. I'll stay here by the wheel."

"As you wish," Annabeth sighed. She got his point that someone had to stay there and look after the ship's direction, but she couldn't help but think that ever since they departed from Camp Half-Blood, Jason wasn't… well, himself. He seemed too closed to her, too… Nico-ish. **(AN – Annabeth doesn't know that Nico is missing.)**

At the Argo II, there was one room that Leo called The Room Where the Most Amazing Plans Are Made, but essentially, it was a lounge, combined with a dining room. There were couches and cupboards on the sides, but also a long, oaken table with chairs of the same style in the middle. On the left, the door lead to a small kitchen, where Leo, Katie and Rachel were taking turns cooking meals for the 'sailors'. Sometimes, also Piper and Annabeth went there to pick up some tips, but their strengths didn't lie in the field of cooking, and the girls admitted that themselves. Travis and Connor also visited the kitchen quite often, but their intentions were way different that Annabeth's and Piper's; the 'main cooks' – as Leo liked to call Katie, Rachel and himself – had to shoo them away like pests because they kept stealing ingredients for themselves.

One drawer in the room belonged to Annabeth – she kept her plans, maps and designs inside – so the daughter of Athena opened it and took a notebook and nine pencils. She handed a pencil to everyone present and then tore nine blank pages out of the notebook. Deciding she wasn't going to need the notebook anymore, she put it back in the drawer and beckoned for Travis to come nearer. It was Travis' idea, after all; so it only made sense that he should have a say in the selection of the questions.

Together, the two thought of the best questions they could ask, and Annabeth was slowly starting to wish she'd decided to be selfish. After his seventh insane suggestion – 'In which fast-food would you like to meet a monster the most?' – Annabeth got so annoyed; she put her pencil down and left Travis to finish it on his own. Only later she realized that the better move would've been if she was the one, who finished it.

When all questions were decided, Travis folded all papers and Annabeth scooped them into her baseball cap and mixed them up like a pancake.

"Okay, everyone pick a paper from the cap," Annabeth said, and since she was annoyed at Travis, she handed her cap to the person on the other side of her, and that was Piper.

"Um… Annabeth, there isn't anything in the cap," Piper said, looking at Annabeth weirdly.

"What? Oh, no, that's a Cap of Invisibility; the papers are there, you just can't see them 'cause they're invisible."

Still not quite looking like she believed Annabeth, Piper put her hand into the cap and when she felt papers touching her, her eyes widened. "That's sick," she breathed. However, she couldn't help the small shriek that escaped her lips when she looked into the cap and saw that her fingers turned invisible, too. It's not every day that you see your arm end at the wrist, but still feel your fingers, after all.

Shaking her head at the cap, Piper took a paper and passed the cap to Leo. The cap travelled around the table and finally returned back to Annabeth with just one last paper inside. Annabeth had to spend a very long time deciding, which of the total of one remaining papers she should pick, and when she finally made the decision, she gestured for everyone to start writing.

"Man, I feel like I'm writing a test," Leo muttered.

"How much time do we have?" Katie asked.

"About… ten – fifteen minutes," Annabeth said.

"You mean we have to write a whole essay in fifteen minutes?!" Will exclaimed.

"Not a whole essay, of course," Annabeth corrected him. "Just a couple of words; write who is it that you picked and why."

"A couple of words… that means two, right?" Connor grinned.

"No!"

"Annabeth, is cheating allowed?"

"Ugh, shut up and write!" Annabeth cried. 'How the Hades does that boy want to cheat when everyone has different questions?'

For the next while, there was silence, only disturbed by the sound of nine pencils scribbling on paper. Everyone was focused, for writing the answers was harder than they expected. Only when Annabeth saw Connor picking his nose with the end of the pencil, her stomach turned and she had to break the silence.

"Connor! That's my pencil that you're shoving up your nose, do you know that?"

"Ew, you're disgusting," Piper and Rachel exclaimed, noticing Connor's actions.

"Thanks, I'm trying," Connor bowed theatrically.

Annabeth glared at him furiously. "You are going to clean that pencil so there won't be one single bacterium on it."

"Hey Annabeth, how much time is left?" Rachel asked to get the topic away from this not-so-stomach-friendly theme.

"Let me see… oh, we've already been writing for eighteen minutes, so everyone just finish and put it back into the cap."

There was some grumbling, but everyone obeyed. Immediately after the first round ended, the second one began, when everyone picked a paper they were going to read.

"Yo Annabeth, what am I supposed to do when I have my own essay?" Leo asked.

Travis facepalmed. "First of all, you shouldn't say it. Then, you can be sure you'll be right when you guess who wrote it."

Annabeth facepalmed, too, but on Travis' forehead. "Just put it back into the cap and pick another one."

'Alright,' Piper thought, looking at the essay she'd picked. 'So I can be sure it wasn't Leo who wrote this.'

After everyone had an essay and nobody had their own, Piper started reading.

"**The person I'm the most jealous of. **Interesting…"

**The person I'm the most jealous of is older, but at the same time younger than me, but that's not why I'm jealous of her. She's pretty, I guess, but I wouldn't want to look like her; she's got something with her eyes, a weird dysfunction that I don't know the name of, and I'm not sure whether the name even exists, because I haven't met anyone else with the same eye issue. She's also got a cool boyfriend, but even that isn't why I'm jealous of her; I'm fine in my current situation, thanks.**

"Isn't that supposed to describe the reasons why you _are_ jealous of that person, and not why you _aren't?_" Piper interrupted herself, raising an eyebrow.

**This person is probably a born commander; she can make other people do what she wants with just one word. I'd like to have this ability so much. Nobody would ever cross my plans, because I would just tell them not to and they'd do it. I would want something that someone else has, and I'd get it. I would never get in trouble, because I'd just tell someone else to take the blame. **

**This ability of hers is so useful; I don't understand why she doesn't like to use it. I know that if I was in her place, I'd make the most of it and make myself the King of the Universe. But since I don't have the ability and she does, I'm also kind of glad she tones it down a lot, because I could only be on the other side of it, and that's something I do not want.**

"The end," Piper said. "That was about me!"

"Yeah. I think it will be pretty obvious who the essays are about," Annabeth said. "But who wrote it?"

"That's the question. Well… just for the eyes and boyfriend comment, I think it was a boy. What's wrong about my eyes, anyway?"

"Nothing," Rachel said, "but there really aren't many people, whose eyes change color."

"I guess you're right," Piper admitted. 'Who gets into trouble and would like others to take the blame for it?' she thought. 'Who would want to be able to Charmspeak?'

Piper dismissed Will immediately, he didn't seem like that type to her, but the remaining three boys were all mischievous and pranksters. All of them were older than her, but in the family tree, she would be their great-aunt or something like that. That wasn't going to be easy.

Piper read the essay one more time. She got the feeling that the writer didn't know her that well. She was sure that Leo could write more about her; maybe some embarrassing details from Wilderness or the quest. Leo had said that he had picked his own essay anyway, so this one couldn't have been written by him. So that left the Stolls.

Piper felt like banging her head on the table. The only difference between Travis and Connor besides their height was that Travis had a girlfriend and Connor didn't. In their attitudes, thought processes, facial expressions, they were identical to her. Because of that, she decided to take a guess.

"Travis," Piper said.

"Wrong," the brothers said as one.

"Connor, then," Piper corrected herself. "Wait, I'm the person you're the most jealous of? Seriously?"

"Well, you can Charmspeak, and I sure wasn't going to describe Drew! Her head would be two times smaller if she wiped off those tons of make-up she wears."

Rachel shuddered. "Imagine Connor being able to Charmspeak."

"I'd rather not," Katie said weakly. As the most often picked victim of the Stolls' pranks, she could imagine the best, how disastrous that would've been.

"Alright. Leo, you're next," Annabeth said to change the topic. One threat to end the world was more than enough, thank you; nobody needed another one.

"**The hottest member of my family, not counting my boyfriend or girlfriend and Aphrodite,**" Leo read.

**I wanna start by saying that I definitely have a girlfriend, not a boyfriend; well, unless she was secretly both, but I doubt it.**

**Why is there 'besides Aphrodite' in the title, anyway? To me, she looks like my girlfriend.**

**Back to the topic; my girlfriend and Aphrodite are by far the most beautiful members of my family, but before the enormous gap separating them from other people, there's one more person, and that person I'm going to describe.**

**She has one unusual trait; she always copies my girlfriend in everything she does, but you can only see her in a bathroom or a wardrobe. Sometimes also in a hall, but not in every hall.**

**She has beautiful face, cute hair and an amazing figure; not only when she's smiling, always. Her personality is very similar to my girlfriend's, but I've never heard her speak. I have to wonder whether she's mute, because I've definitely seen her open her mouth.**

**I have to say, I'm torn between two beautiful girls at the moment; I would've liked nothing more than date both of them. Unfortunately, that's not possible. First, I don't want to hurt my girlfriend by saying that I love another girl besides her; and second, she has a boyfriend. She's dating a guy that looks a lot like me. Although, he's a lot less cool than me, obviously.**

"Finished," Leo said, sighing. "This was written by a guy, too, and since Connor's essay has been read and it's not mine, that leaves Travis and Will. I don't think I've seen Will with a girlfriend, so… Travis?"

"Yup," Travis nodded. "But Will has a girlfriend."

A hurt look flashed across Katie's face. 'He likes someone else? Was he lying then, when he wrote _Katie I'm lovin' u_ on my cabin roof? And what is that rubbish about not wanting to hurt me when he wrote that on the paper for all of us to hear?'

"Alright… but I have no idea who this was about. A girl that looks like Katie but only appears in wardrobes and bathrooms… beats me," Leo shook his head. "Anyone has an idea?"

Everyone except Travis shook their head, lost like Leo.

"Not even you, Annabeth?"

"No," Annabeth sighed, frustrated. "But I know it's going to be something very stupid."

"I have no idea, honestly," Leo said. "I'm going to take a guess… Katie's ghost that haunts you in bathrooms?"

Everyone snorted, even Leo, who realized how stupid that sounded.

"No," Travis chuckled. "Even though your guess wasn't so bad."

'Yeah, let's hear what he has to say,' Katie thought bitterly.

"It's about… dun, dun, dun… the girl on the other side of Katie's mirror!"

"What did I say? It's something stupid," Annabeth snickered. The others soon joined in; all except Katie. She was looking at Travis intensively, not quite believing it.

"There really is no other girl?" she whispered, and when Travis shook his head, she gave him a soft kiss on the lips. "You gave me such a scare, you know?"

"That's what I was aiming for," Travis grinned, poking Katie's nose.

Katie buried her head in Travis' shoulder, unable to stop the grin spreading on her face.

"Hey," Connor snapped his fingers loudly. "You can get all mushy-gushy later, far away from me."

Katie jumped and sat back on her chair, her face bright red.

"I guess I'm next, aren't I?" Will said, amused. "So… this essay is called **The person I'd like the most to have with me on an unknown island, not counting my boyfriend / girlfriend**."

**If I had to pick one person, and I couldn't pick the person I'm dating, I think I would probably pick my best friend. If I don't count my dad, I've known him for the longest time.**

**The boy I'm describing has southern-hemispheric looks. He is hyperactive; he is unable to just sit and do nothing for more than ten seconds. He is also mischievous and likes to tell jokes. Most of them are outdated, but he still insists on saying them.**

**He is also kind of unlucky; he's been trying to get himself a girlfriend for years, but he hasn't been successful yet. His problem is that he always hits on girls that aren't available.**

**He's had serious issues with furniture in his life; he insulted a table by polishing it with a wrong polish and the table ran away from him. Then, he had to go chasing the table.**

**I'd pick him as my companion, because of his ability to always see the bright side, often literally. In addition to this, he's also a great cook, and an even better friend. He's helped me out of some tight situations and he's one of the two people I'd trust with my life. I'd even say that I love him as my brother if I wasn't worried that it would go to his head too much.**

"Well, that's it," Will announced. "I think it's pretty obvious that it's from Piper and about Leo. Oh, and what is that 'insulted table' business?"

"Exactly what it looks like. I forgot he's picky about that," Leo said. "Really? You love me as a brother? Aww, you didn't have to state the truth so openly, Beauty Queen."

"And that's exactly why I added the last bit," Piper said, but smiled at Leo nonetheless. "_And don't call me Beauty Queen!_"

Leo snorted. "This is exactly why I keep doing that; your reactions are always the best."

"Glad I can be your source of entertainment," Piper said dryly.

"Well, it can't always be me; we've got to rotate a bit."

"Would you shut up so I can read?" Clarisse snapped. She would've never admitted it, but seeing Travis and Katie or Piper and Leo interact made her miss Chris more than ever. She maybe didn't show it on the outside, but ever since she and Chris had gotten together and she'd become friends with Silena, she'd changed. She wasn't that girl who had attempted to push Percy's head into the toilet anymore; she realized that while war was entertaining, friendship and peace were more important. And that had become her new reason to fight; to stop Gaia from destroying the peace they'd barely won.

"**The person I'd like to prank the most**," Clarisse read.

'And that's why I shouldn't have let Travis finish it,' Annabeth thought, rolling her eyes upwards.

**The person I'd like to prank the most? Well, he isn't really a person, and I wouldn't want only to prank him, but I guess he'll have to be enough.**

**The reason why he isn't really a person is because he is half ungulate. One half of him is human; the other half belongs to an animal you can see on a farm. However, while the animal is an herbivore, he behaves like a carnivore. He enjoys especially human flesh, which is kind of cannibalistic, since his mother was human; and a queen, at that.**

**I'm not going to write the reasons why I want to prank him. Let's just say that he's taken away from me something that was very precious to me, and I cannot ever get it back. For that, I'd like to dye his animal part violet and write Milka on top of it. Then, I want to put him on a leash and shove him into a cage at a zoo. Last, I want to put lipstick and a thick layer of make-up on him, preferably also with eyeliner and blush. I know it won't equalize the loss he'd caused, but at least I'd have some satisfaction.**

"Done," Clarisse grunted. "Will and the Minotaur."

"You're right," Will said, a stormy look on his face. "That beast is the reason why Michael is dead. If I could, I'd make the stupid cow pay eternally for this," he cracked his knuckles. Well, he didn't really say _stupid_, but for the sake of keeping the rating K, let's say he did.

"I know I shouldn't laugh," Connor chortled, "but imagine a cow with make-up and lipstick!"

"You mean Drew?" Piper asked.

Everyone burst out laughing. "Nice one, Piper," Leo high-fived her.

"Yeah," Rachel giggled. "Well, I guess I'm next, so," Rachel cleared her throat, "**The person, my opinion of who has changed the most when I met him / her.** Nice formulation," she huffed. "A real mouthful. Anyway…"

**I guess the biggest difference is between my opinions of my cousin before I met him and after I met him.**

**I have heard some stories about my cousin when I was little, and in them, he was portrayed as a serious man, sometimes even cruel, who loved art, but mostly his sister, over which he was overprotective. (He's much older than me, so when I was born, he was already an adult.)**

**When I met him, I realized that the only true thing was his overprotectiveness, and even that has to be looked at with closed eyes, because he and his sister bicker almost constantly. I've never heard him sing, but his current poetry is far from how it was portrayed. It's possible that he doesn't have any good inspiration these days, or he's just too lazy to work on his poems properly. Either way, they aren't what I thought them to be.**

**Instead of being serious, my cousin is very laid-back and lazy, often letting others to do his job instead of him. He's a bit like my boyfriend/girlfriend that way. Anyways; his sister now has to play the role of the responsible sibling, and this is a topic of many of their arguments.**

"Finished," Rachel announced. "Apollo?" she guessed.

"Has to be," Annabeth said. "He always bickers with Artemis, he's lazy and his poetry is horrid."

"I thought so," Rachel nodded. "Now, who is his cousin… Leo and Clarisse are both a generation younger… Annabeth is too, I think… so that means Katie!"

"Yeah, it's me," Katie confirmed. "Wait; I've just realized, I'm the only child of the first six gods here."

"You're right," Annabeth nodded. "Well, there's also Jason, but he's outside."

"Hey; boyfriend/girlfriend, what was that supposed to mean?" Travis asked indignantly. "You're not sure about my gender?"

Katie stifled a laugh. "Yes, how did you know? No; I just didn't want to make it obvious whether I was a boy or a girl."

"Phew. I feared you thought I wasn't masculine enough," Travis said, stroking his young moustache.

"Isn't it obvious that you aren't?" Clarisse threw in.

"Nobody asked you," Travis snapped.

"No I didn't," Annabeth said, and when only Clarisse showed signs of understanding, she put her head in her hands. It was so blissful to forget for a while that Percy was gone…

"Okay, I'm reading," Connor said, showing tact for once in his life. "**The most terrifying member of my family.** Katie when she's pranked."

"It doesn't really say that, does it?" Katie asked. However, she didn't get a reply.

**Other people might say that they're afraid of their fathers, mothers or uncles, because they don't take bad grades lightly. What am I supposed to say when my half-brother knows about everything I'm afraid of?**

**On the outside, he doesn't look like much; just a regular guy about twenty with a cruel face. He's not impossibly strong, nor does he have a couple of gangsta friends. (Or better; he has, but they don't like him very much.) The thing that makes him threatening is that he can feel what a person is afraid of, and use it against him/her when he wants to.**

**Trust me; you don't want him as your enemy, ever. Tell me, would you like your classmates to know that you're afraid of your TV, because at night, it looks like a killer robot together with the cabinet it's on to you? Would you like your mother to know that it wasn't your dog that broke the vase, but you as you were playing football in the living room? I guess not.**

**My half-brother is a temperamental person, and he doesn't like it when he doesn't get what he wants. One time, our father provided me with a vehicle that I could take for a ride. My half-brother wanted to ride, too, so he stole the vehicle from me. I had a hard time fighting his terrifying powers to get it back. Believe me; he's such an unpleasant and antisocial person, you'd be better never ever meeting him in your life.**

"Done," Connor shuddered. "Don't ever put me through this reading torture again."

"It's in Greek," Katie pointed out.

"I don't care; it's about the principle. And about the essay… I have no idea. It wasn't Rachel for sure, but whether it was Annabeth, Leo or Clarisse, I don't know. Just from the style of writing, I'd say Annabeth, even though I don't know any of her siblings that are so terrifying. Well, I do, but Matthew and Bobby are terrifying in another sense."

"How are they terrifying?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.

Connor shrugged. "I don't have patience for midgets. Anyway; was it you, who wrote the essay?"

"No," Annabeth shook her head, looking between Clarisse and Leo, trying to figure it out. Suddenly, her eyes went wide; a very possible answer coming to her head. 'I would've never thought…'

"I wrote it, and it's about Phobos," Clarisse said.

Everyone except Annabeth, who had figured it out, gasped. "_You?_"

"Me. Why is it so surprising?" Clarisse glared.

"It just… like Connor said; it didn't seem like your style," Rachel shrugged. "Compared to other essays, you can become a writer."

Clarisse snorted. "Sure; when toothpicks become better weapons than spears."

"Well, if you take a giant's toothpick and a gnome's spear…" Travis suggested.

"Are you volunteering to test them on yourself?" Clarisse asked. "'Cause if you are, I'll gladly be on the other side."

"Um… no thanks. I'm good."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm definitely sure."

"I don't know, Travis; this sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Leo grinned. "You shouldn't miss it."

"Oh, leave him be," Katie chuckled. "Anyways; I'm reading next. This essay is called **The coolest immortal member of my family, not counting my parent**.

**Seeing as I haven't really met many of immortals, this essay isn't very accurate. As a matter of fact, the person I'm going to describe, I haven't even met in person. However, she's done something for me, and that's why she's the coolest deity except my immortal parent (obviously) in my eyes.**

**I can't really describe her physical appearance; I've only heard that she's beautiful. I've heard, too, that she's temperamental and a bit na****ï****ve, but I can't say whether it's true or not, since I haven't met her, as I have already said. I have, however, met her daughter, and I would've said she's my best friend, if I didn't make the guessing easier for you this way.**

**One time not so long ago, we'd been blown away from somewhere, and she transported us to safety. She also improved our equipment and, most importantly, gave us cash to spend; while all the while she wasn't supposed to interact with us. Defying the boss in our family like that definitely earned her good points in my ranking.**

"Done. It's easy now that Travis and Connor are out of the game. From the remaining three, only Leo could be so stupid to write _I would've told you… blah, blah, blah, if I didn't spoil it for you that way._"

"That's mean, Katie," Leo pouted.

"No, Repair Boy. That's called using your common sense," Piper smirked.

"You're mean, too, Pipes!"

"You wrote that I'm your best friend, Leo; would you make up your mind please?"

"Help! 911! Girls are ganging up on me!" Leo groaned comically.

"Really? I thought you'd be on cloud nine, surrounded by girls," Will smirked. "It was you, who was complaining that you can't get a girl to fall for you, was it?"

"Okay, I'll change it. Taken girls are ganging up on me!"

"Well, tough luck, dude. Cope with it while I read, 'kay?" Travis snickered. "**The biggest hypocrite in my family**."

**There are many hypocrites in my family, but if I had to pick one of them, I'd pick my grandfather. After all; he was the one, who had created all of those stupid rules, but then he goes and breaks them like nothing happened; just because he wanted to. And when somebody else breaks a rule, he punishes them mercilessly. If that isn't hypocrisy, then I don't know what is.**

**I'll be concrete.**

"I don't know, who wrote this, but all of you people are looking pretty human to me," Travis snickered, pausing in his reading.

"Travis, darling, would you be so kind to _shut up and read_," Katie groaned.

"Yes Milady," Travis saluted and proceeded to read soundlessly. He was opening his mouth, but no sound was coming from it.

"Travis," Katie sighed. "You know how I meant it. And don't you dare saying that you've just done what I told you to!"

Travis smiled. 'I've so corrupted her to prankster thinking!' **A good friend of mine is my grandfather's daughter. He helped her when her uncles attacked her, angry at her father. Then, when one of the uncles had a child of his own, he wanted to get rid of him; the fact that he himself had a daughter not on his mind.**

**He's so proud; he can't admit it when he does a mistake, but he's very quick to point out others' mistakes, and very cruel to punish them for it. Like the rules were made for everyone but himself; even though he, as the person, who'd made them, should be setting an example to the others.**

"Ugh; Connor, now I understand your feelings. It was a horrible feeling, reading," Travis said. "At least it's not so hard to guess. Maybe Rachel also has a hypocritical gramps, I don't know, but our little encyclopedia definitely has. Make a gigantic applause for… Annabeth and her gramps, Zeus!"

Only Connor and Leo joined to Travis' applause. When they were finished, Annabeth, Katie and Piper did a different kind of applause – on the boys' respective heads.

"Remind me again why we brought them with us," Piper groaned.

"Because we're just so awesome!" Connor and Leo cheered. Travis would've, too, but Katie's hand on his mouth made it kind of impossible for him.

"Yeah, impossibly stupid," Piper said.

"Don't be so mean, Piper," Rachel grinned. "I've heard Travis say something sensible."

Piper and Annabeth pretended to faint. "When did this happen; in the 1250-s?"

"Hey, I'm not that old," Rachel pouted.

Piper blushed. "I meant… in a vision."

"Gods, no! I don't have dreams full of Travis, unlike Katie."

Katie blushed. "Why, you…"

"Why you two don't let me read the last essay?" Annabeth jumped into the growing argument. "We know it's from Rachel, but-"

"Exactly, you know, so why read it, right?" Rachel asked hopefully.

"No way, new mummy girl," Clarisse said. "We all got our essays read, you get, too."

Rachel's green eyes narrowed. "_New mummy girl?_" she hissed.

"So? What are you going to do about it?"

"Hey girls! As much as the guys would love it if a cat fight broke out, I'm kind of trying to read here," Annabeth called, waving the last paper in the air.

"**The** **biggest nonsense I've lived through since I've met my new family**," Annabeth read. 'That is, again, something that I haven't thought of. Well, it looks better than what Will's got, at least.'

**Phew, not easy, this is. There has sure been a few. However, probably the most insane moment happened before I've even known about all this business – which kind of makes sense, don't you think?**

**Anyway; it happened at a dam.**

"Annabeth, don't swear," Leo scolded.

"Leo, don't plead for a broken nose," Annabeth replied.

"Not bad, Wise Girl," Clarisse praised her.

"Thanks." **I was there as an innocent visitor, and I had flu.** "Why is that important?" Annabeth muttered, puzzled. **We were somewhere in the underground, by the turbines, and I went to blow my nose when suddenly, a piece of something brownish passed right through me. When I focused on the boy, to whom the light belonged, I saw that it was shaped like a sword. The thing that came to my mind first was what sort of a freaky light effect that was, but naturally, I didn't ask the boy that. On the contrary; I asked him whether he attempts to kill everyone that blows his nose. It was possible that he had fluphobia or something.**

**He then tried to convince me that it wasn't a sword that I saw, which sounded pretty stupid to me, but after I told him that, I saw a thing that chilled me to the bone – walking bones. I told the boy to hide and then I sent them off, figuring out that it was them, who the boy kept his sword for. The boy then ran away, telling me that his surname was Gotta-Go. Now, we're good friends, and it all started with him attempting to kill me. Amazing how friendships form, isn't it?**

"That was how Percy and you became friends?" Annabeth cried with wide eyes. Percy had told her it was something embarrassing and stupid, but she wouldn't have thought it was this stupid. 'I should probably stop doubting Percy when it comes to being stupid.'

"Yeah," Rachel said, laughing like everyone else.

"Priceless," Travis yelled, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. "Wait; Annabeth, who has won?"

"Nobody," Annabeth said, smirking to herself. 'Technically, I've guessed the right answer first.' "There are no winners and no prizes. We just wanted to kill time, didn't we? And we've spent more than two hours here, so, finished. Everybody return the pencils to me; you can do whatever you want to with the papers."

"Spit wads," Leo cheered. Piper groaned.

"The pencils! Wait; Connor, you've got to wash yours; I haven't forgotten," Annabeth warned the mischievous son of Hermes.

"I haven't, don't worry," Connor grinned, reaching to wipe the pencil on Annabeth's shirt. Annabeth noticed and grabbed his wrist in a fierce grip.

"Don't. Even. Think. About. It," Annabeth gritted through her teeth.

When you have Jason and Leo available, you never have a problem with acquiring warm water to shower in, so Leo had built also a bathroom on the Argo II. However, he couldn't have known that once, someone would take a shower unwillingly and clothed; because Annabeth took Connor in her arms bridal-style and carried him to the bathroom, followed by the remaining demigods, who were laughing their heads off. There, she dumped the cursing and spitting boy into the bathtub, saying, "If you don't want to wash just the pencil, you are both going to wash both yourself and the pencil. Athena knows you need it; you stink."

And that day, Connor Stoll had learned a lesson: If you don't want to get totally wet, it's not wise to anger not only the son of Poseidon, but also the girlfriend of the son of Poseidon.

* * *

_So, that's the end. I'd like to point out that because of this story, I haven't read TMoA yet, 'cause if I started, this story probably wouldn't be finished until November. I know that the first chapter has been released a long time ago, but my experience says that if I'd read it when it came out, it would've just made the waiting harder. So, this means that there might be some things wrong, and I'm sorry about that._

_Thanks to everyone, who's reading this right now, because that probably means you've read my story from the beginning to the end. (I don't think there are people that don't read the actual stories, just the author's notes; that would be just weird.) It's amazing how an idea that had popped into my brain at about eleven PM got so popular._

_So, one more time, thank you._

_aaquater_

_...and it's finally the time for me to read TMoA! Waaah..._


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